* The contents of SEAC 90/2 and Annex 1 and 2 of SEAC 90/3 have not been circulated outside the committee as these documents contain prepublication reports and opinions provided in confidence.

On the afternoon of Thursday 24th November SEAC will consider unpublished data on vCJD infectivity in blood and unpublished research in animal models examining human to human transmission of vCJD and the correlation between abnormal prion protein concentrations and TSE infectivity. This part of the meeting will be held in closed session to allow discussion of this unpublished scientific information. This is in accordance with SEAC's code of practice.

FindingsWe studied 114 brain samples from 70 patients with sporadic CJD and three patients with variant CJD. Every patient classified as CJD type 2, and all variant CJD patients, showed POM2/POM12 reactivity in the cerebellum and other PrPSc-rich brain areas, with a typical PrPSc type 1 migration pattern.

InterpretationThe regular coexistence of multiple PrPSc types in patients with CJD casts doubts on the validity of electrophoretic PrPSc mobilities as surrogates for prion strains, and questions the rational basis of current CJD classifications.

what i been saying for years, that the diagnostic criteria differentiating between the nvCJD (i.e. 'the chosen ones') and the sCJD (i.e. 'the forgotten ones') has been terribly flawed from the beginning. ....TSS